The Formless Shadow: The Wildcat Yokai Legend (Complete)
The formless shadow, the wildcat yokai legend (Complete)
Emperor Xin of the Shang Dynasty, King Zhou, had once been a wise and benevolent ruler. Yet after meeting his favored consort, Dalki, he fell swiftly into corruption.
Dalki, who had captured the king's heart with both words and flesh, was no human at all but a fox yokai bearing multiple tails. Ministers loyal to the Shang Dynasty, Gija and Bigan, risked their lives to advise the king to send his consort away and take a proper queen.
In response, Dalki whispered to King Zhou that Gija and Bigan must be punished for speaking falsehoods with their treacherous mouths. The king heeded her words.
He ordered Gija's liver removed and turned into dried meat to present to his consort, but the quick-witted Gija escaped by feigning the role of a slave. Bigan, however, had his heart torn out by Dalki and was devoured.
It was then that Dalki, who had possessed six tails, grew a seventh.
* * *
The shadow had dreamed of the Golden Land.
It had hoped to be reborn as a noble being.
Born a shadow, living as a shadow, the formless shadow could only gaze upon the seven-tailed fox yokai radiating an aloof and majestic presence before its eyes.
What a truly beautiful form it was.
Without question, it had never seen anything so beautiful in all its life.
The shadow had spent its entire existence longing for a true form.
Neither the wildcat's body it first obtained, nor the forms of human men and women, nor even the goblin's shape could ever satisfy it.
The day it took the goblin's form, it believed its purpose had finally been fulfilled.
Unlike the shapes of humans, beasts, or yokai, the goblin's body brought with it a strange sense of exaltation. It had even gained that peculiar power known as "divine authority."
Thud.
Yet.
Thud.
No matter how many times it swung the goblin club.
Thud.
Its craving for a true form remained unfulfilled.
What more did it desire?
What more did it crave?
What kind of form would finally bring satisfaction?
The answer came from the Taeja Singi.
The Taeja Singi revealed the truth: only by claiming the forms of a thousand humans could it achieve ascension.
The Taeja Singi demanded not beasts, not goblins, not yokai—only human forms.
The shadow's true goal had always been a form that could satisfy its longing. The Taeja Singi promised that upon reaching ascension, it would obtain a form beyond anything it could imagine.
To the shadow, ascension was merely a means to obtain that form.
And now, in this moment, the shadow concluded that the truth the Taeja Singi had spoken was false.
The seven-tailed fox yokai radiating a sacred aura before its eyes, wreathed in golden flames—that was the true form capable of fulfilling its endless craving.
The shadow swung its goblin club seven times toward the seven-tailed fox yokai.
Thud.
Thud.
Thud.
Thud.
Thud.
Thud.
Thud.
[Kneel]
[Be Suppressed]
[Bow Down]
[Collide]
[Be Torn]
[Be Warped]
[Be Split]
One of the mystical powers the shadow had mastered as a goblin: Word Spirit.
Word Spirit was the goblin's divine ability. If the target's rank was lower, resistance was impossible.
Fortunately, the shadow—granted the qualification of ascension—ranked higher than a goblin and had been able to devour one. It had also used this same Word Spirit to subdue the unconscious human Taoist.
The Taoist's arts had been powerful enough to threaten even a shadow that had lived for centuries, yet no matter how strong, a Taoist remained a fragile human. The shadow, which understood human hearts better than anyone, had slowly eroded the Taoist's mind before revealing the goblin's form.
Modern Taoists who had never encountered a goblin had no way to resist its power.
The fox yokai would be no different.
Long ago, the formless shadow had heard rumors of a "blue-lighted fox" that once competed for the seat of ascension. But that blue fox had possessed only a single tail, and its form had not been nearly so beautiful.
This yokai was not the blue fox it knew.
She was likely a newly born yokai who had never faced a goblin before.
Therefore, even she would be unable to resist the goblin's Word Spirit.
Three Word Spirits carrying forced commands.
Four Word Spirits carrying physical force.
A sonic boom split the air. An immense physical power capable of warping the ground itself hurtled toward the seven-tailed fox yokai and struck true.
Even if the seven Word Spirits killed the fox yokai, it would not matter. A corpse could still yield a form.
Yet the fox yokai did not die.
Instead, she merely looked down upon the shadow with that same aloof dignity.
* * *
"Oh…"
She didn't die.
She didn't die at all. On the contrary, an uncontrollable surge of exhilaration welled up within her.
Her twisted right arm, both legs, and split upper body had already healed perfectly. Even the sticky blood staining her white robes had vanished without a trace.
The yokai in goblin form continued its attacks, but she nullified them without even using Fox Magic.
Utterly bewildered, she examined her body once more before finally understanding the situation.
She had grown a little taller.
Her breasts had become so much fuller that her shoulders ached.
And one more tail had sprouted.
Thud.
Thud.
Thud-thud.
Thud-thud, thud-thud, thud-thud.
The goblin-formed yokai began swinging its club wildly at her. That rhythmic thudding sound was oddly pleasant, like a metronome helping her focus.
She sank into thought, using the bouncing thuds as accompaniment.
Obtaining a fourth tail from three required an enormous amount of yokai energy. The same held true for the fifth, and the sixth.
By that logic, she had assumed the seventh tail would demand just as much energy.
In hindsight, it was strange.
After absorbing the blue fox's energy, she had gained more than enough to never worry about running out again. She had believed that amount would be sufficient to manifest a seventh tail.
She had tried many times, yet the seventh tail had never appeared.
Clearly, the condition for the seventh tail was not simply a vast quantity of yokai energy. After all, she wasn't emitting any yokai energy at all right now.
This power was fundamentally different from yokai energy.
She had felt something like it before.
Ah.
Right.
Sangun.
The power she had sensed from Sangun.
Spiritual Power.
She still didn't understand why she had suddenly awakened Spiritual Power. Was it because she had escaped death?
It wasn't as if she were some yellow-haired thug who grew stronger every time she nearly died.
Thud.
Thud.
Regardless, she needed to wrap this up before people started gathering.
She looked down at the yokai wearing the goblin's form.
No—at the shadow.
She could see its true nature beneath the false form: jealousy, longing, greed, and desire.
"…How pitiful."
[What…]
That was her honest feeling after seeing through its essence.
Pitiful.
She could not understand the sorrow of one without form. No one, including herself, could ever understand the shadow's sorrow.
Step.
Step, step.
She walked slowly toward the shadow. The sudden weight of her fuller breasts was distracting, but she ignored it.
The shadow in goblin form swung its club and screamed in desperation.
[Form… Give me a form!]
[This is the end of my long craving.]
[Fox yokai, you are my target now.]
[Ascension or whatever— I don't care anymore.]
[Please.]
[Please, give me a form…!]
"Sorry, but I can't give you a form. Besides, this body is way more inconvenient than it looks. You wouldn't want it anyway."
The weight really was no joke.
She planned to return to six tails as soon as she dealt with it.
She began gathering Spiritual Power in her hand.
She hadn't expected Lee Ha-neul's force training method to come in handy here.
Once she thought of the spiritual power as part of her body, it gathered easily.
The Spiritual Power was not blue.
It was golden.
So bright it could blind.
So radiant it could erase the shadow in an instant.
[Aah.]
[The Golden Land…]
[It's warm…]
Fwoooosh.
The shadow could not reject the light.
She drove the shadow away with the light called Spiritual Power.
In the place where the formless shadow vanished, only the goblin club remained, lying alone on the ground.